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My schedule this week had been from ten in the morning to six o’clock in the evening. We were inundated with updating personnel policies and following up on promising job applications for the Paloma Hotel and the upcoming hotel Uncle Anton was having built in the competitive Miami market. Pierce got off work at eight-thirty, so it’d be a while before he could drive me fifteen miles back to his parent’s house. No one had mentioned Chase in front of Uncle Anton like last week. Uncle Anton didn’t look well rested. If only he’d listen to his wife or son.
Nico provided customers with their drinks and he stood in front of me. We watched as Brianna scribbled orders on her notepad. A guy with slick dark-black hair and a shirt with too many unopened buttons that showed his hairy chest had a cocky mien as stared my friend down. The girl he had with him clearly enjoyed that Brianna was tolerating his behavior. Brianna’s feelings and thoughts weren’t noticeable. I didn’t know the guy. I hadn’t seen him around town, but he rubbed me the wrong way from just observing his behavior.
“That’s the arrogant as swipe that had Bri drunk off her ass on Friday.” Nico interrupted my thoughts. It was then that I recalled that the same guy had been sitting at a table with the same girl close to where Brianna had been seated at La Floridita on Saturday. I only remembered him because he’d had his shirt opened unnecessarily, like he did today.
I slightly shook my head. “I’d ask him them to leave if I had that kind of power,” I told him.
Nico grimaced. “I’ll talk to Henerito about having them escorted outta here if they get stupid with Bri.” He left me with a tall glass of morir soñado.
Brianna served the tables and some patrons glanced her way. When she served that guy and his date, she treated them like they were the other customers—at least from what I could see.
***
“Were you having an orgasm in that picture?” I asked, and Brianna giggled, staring at the photo of her with Austin before she touched his bald head.
Brianna arched a brow at me, a smile edging her lips. “I was pretty close to it.” She placed another picture on the table and I burst out laughing as a dark flush rose across her face. She looked like a cute tomato. I’d downloaded the photos Brianna and I had taken of Double Dulce from our cell phones onto my computer and printed them. All of the photos we both took were drying up. Brianna and I looked like our faces hurt from smiling so wide in our only photo with Tainted Virtue.
I sat in the middle of the bed. When Brianna brought the desk chair with her, I told her to stop. I was just happy that she finally agreed to come to my guestroom instead of going straight home afterwards.
“If I hadn’t met Chase, I would’ve been all over Renner,” I told her.
“Oh, they’re all sexy. Renner has that brooding thing about him that’s not over the top or annoying.”
I gave her a smile. Brianna dragged the chair back to the desk. I exhaled and patted the open spot on the middle of the bed. She sat down and crossed her legs. “What’s up with you and that guy?” I queried. If she told me it was none of my business, I wouldn’t bring it up again.
“A guy I thought was pretty great. Turned out he’s a major prick.”
I propped one of the pillows behind me.
“So, you two hooked up or…”
“Derek and I dated during my senior year of high school. I met him at our football game.” Brianna let out a long breath. “His cousin was the wide receiver from the opposing school. I was a cheerleader. After we won, he asked me to come with us to eat. His cousin hadn’t wanted to go anywhere but straight home after the brutal loss. Everyone talked a lot of crap and he was a good sport, and had some solid comebacks. And he’s gorgeous.”
“He’s not hard to look at,” I reluctantly admitted. I really didn’t think he was that attractive, and I knew that she could be with a really gorgeous guy if that was her type.
“He paid for my dinner and asked for my number. We talked on the phone for weeks and then we went on a real date. When we started having sex, everything seemed special, you know? But he started pressuring me to get married and have kids. He told me that I wouldn’t be young forever and that since he finished his technical program, he could support us. And I was like, I am seventeen. I can’t go in that direction yet. I am not even sure if I want marriage and kids. I won’t deny that I considered it, because I didn’t want to lose him. Up until he started getting nasty with me I thought about what it would be like if we took that next step. Derek criticized how I looked and all this other stuff. I ended it when he wouldn’t stop. He sent me a bunch for a messages for weeks, telling me that it he’d give me another chance.” Her eyebrows shot to her forehead. “Give me another chance? I’d broken up with him.” She swallowed. “Anyway, he left me alone. I think Gavin had something to do with that even though I hadn’t told hi
m what had been going on between us, or why we were over. He would’ve flipped out on him then and on Friday.”
“Did Gavin ever like him?”
“No.”
We both laughed.
“But I don’t know if Gavin will like any guy I date. It’s been a year since I saw Derek. And then when he was there on Friday with his new his girl, I figured that I should be the mature one, say hi to them, but they passed by me like I was gum they almost got underneath their shoes. And I had one drink after another.”
I crossed my arms and motioned with my head. “What are you gonna do if Derek keeps popping up where you are?”
“Take it till he stops,” she said. “I know how he is. He’s showing me that he’s moved on after our seven-month relationship, and I haven’t dated any guy since him. It’s his way of saying that I could’ve been the one he takes out. I care about him. I just don’t want to marry him. And he pressured me about marriage so that no one else could have me. Not because he felt that I was the one he wanted to live his life with. I would’ve hated myself had I stayed with him.” She cleared her throat a few times. “I always thought I had to have a boyfriend, you know?”
I nodded. “Nothing compares to being okay with being by yourself.”
***
Chase
Joel and Rylan had left with Maude and one of her friends. I didn’t want to leave the beach yet to go back to Bri and Gavin’s. I took my cell phone from my book bag and called Beth. We hadn’t talked all day.
